Method of manufacturing beaded welting



April 4, 1939. w. c. VIZARD 2,153,321

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING BEADED WELTING Filed July 22, 1938 INVENTOR ZM/ L am/f ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 4, 1939 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING BEADED WELTING hour Application July 22, 1938, Serial No. 220,687

8 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing beaded welting for shoes by which a great saving of leather is achieved.

Those skilled in the art are aware that in order to raise a bead on the face of a strip of welting while maintaining the integrallty of the finished beaded welting, the process of formingup the bead must be initiated with a strip that is wider than the finished product. The more widely known of the earlier forms of welting presenting an integral bead, as exemplified by the Lyon Patent No. 1,656,564, required a welt strip in. wider than the finished product to provide sufiicient material for forming up the bead by the best method then known. For example, a in. beaded welt required a in. wide starting strip. Such earlier beaded welting was made solely from a single width welt strip or fillet.

Since the issue of said Lyon patent a method has been devised, as disclosed in my U. S. Patent No. 2,142,228, dated January 3, 1939 (application Ser. No. 130,095, filed March 10, 1937), for utilizing a double welt strip or fillet from which, by means of a novel three-part severing out, two single Welt strips may be obtained each having the overall width sufiicient to provide for an integral folded bead, while yet the overall width of the starting fillet is considerably less than the combined overall widths of the two single strips obtained through its severance. By this double fillet method of manufacture the width of fillet, for the manufacture of two in. beaded welts, need be only in. or a saving of in. in the width of leather required for two welts made by the earlier Lyon method of manufacture.

The present invention preserves the double fillet method of manufacture but by a change devised after considerable thought in the threepart severing cut enables the saving of an additional in. in the width of the starting fillet required for producing two /2 in. beaded welts.

No. 1 welting fillets for fine shoemaking are cut from the shoulders of the hide which presents fine grained and relatively expensive leather. When it is considered that welting is made in strands of unlimited length to be reeled for distribution in lengths of 1000, and even more, yards, the reduction of even & in. in the width of the starting fillet represents a considerable saving in manufacturing cost, which is shared by the consumer. Each in. reduction in the strand width results in a saving of 16% of the extra width above /2 in. originally'required for the earlier Lyon method of manufacture. Figuring roughly, for the grade of leather that is used, the saving in dollars and cents would amount to about $3.60 per 1000 yards of weltstood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawing in which all of the figures illustrate views in perspective of an end-portion of a fillet, strand or Welt, and in which Figure 1 represents the first step in severing a double fillet into two welt strips by means of a stock-saving three-part cut;

Figs. 2 and 3 represent the further treatment of the welt strip at the left of Fig. 1 in preparing and forming-up a bead for the production of a beaded welt from that strip; and

Figs. 4 and 5 represent the further treatment of the welt strip at the right of Fig. 1 in preparing and forming-up a bead for the production of a beaded welt from that strip.

In the preferred method of practicing the improved method of manufacture of this invention, with reference to the accompanying drawing as illustrative, I0 represents a double welting fillet of grain leather to be severed into two welt strips, each then to be fashioned into a strand of beaded welting. At this point it must be understood that this invention is in no way limited to the treatment of grain leather, but that the advantages accruing from its practice may be gained in a proportional degree from treating the less costly welting materials.

The double fillet i0 is severed longitudinally and generally centrally of its width, as indicated by N (Fig. 1), to produce two single welt strips l2 (left) and [4 (right). The severance is accomplished by a three-part or three-bar cut, the parts or bars each lying at an angle to the other and having the form (viewing an end or transversely cut section of the fillet) of a stretched-out or distorted Z. The three parts comprise a center bar 15, which lies between the two faces of the fillet and oblique to both, and end bars I6 and I 1 extending in opposite directions from the two ends of the center bar.

Considering that Fig. 1 represents a fillet of grain leather with its grain face exposed to view, the bar 16, at the left end of. the cut and at the left of the rabbet formed at the inner edge of the welt strip 12, emerges at the grain face of the fillet in a direction somewhat sharply inclined to the plane of said face and away from the end of the center bar IS, the emergence (Figs. 2 and 3) being along a line just back of the ridge of the bead I8 that is formed-up on the welt strip i2 so that the ridge itself retains its grain covering. This new position of the end bar it thins the bead flap 20 to an extent permitting its folding without further treatment. Preferably the bar I6 is slightly curved, emerging in a plane substantially that of the fillet face thus producing a surface that will flow smoothly into the rounded ridge of the bead to be formed up.

Compared with Fig. 3 of my prior Patent No. 2,142,228 it will be observed the nature of the three-part severing out there disclosed leaves a right-angular shoulder at the rabbeted edge of the welt strip on the left. Additional treatment, namely the removal of a string from this corner, is required to permit forming-up an acceptable bead. One advantage of the improved threepart severing cut of this invention is the elimination of this extra step in the method of manufacture resulting in a considerable saving of time and expense.

The bar H at the right end of the cut and 'at the right of the rabbet formed at the inner edge of the welt strip l4, like the end bar it, extends in a direction somewhat sharply inclined to the plane of the flesh face of the fillet and away from the end of the center bar l5, the emergence at the flesh face of the fillet being along a line that defines the overall width of the beaded welt to be produced from the welt strip I4 as shown by Figs. 4 and 5. A further advantage of this new position of the end bar I! resides in pre-shaping the base of the bead-core 22 for seating the bead in an outwardly inclined position.

Compared with Fig. 5 of my prior Patent No. 2,142,228 it will be observed that the nature of the three-part out there disclosed requires a beveling of the base of the bead-core in order that the setting of the bead may be inclined. The improved three-part severing cut of this invention eliminates the necessity for this additional cutting in order to procure an inclined bead on the welt.

After severance of the double fillet Ii! each of the two edge-rabbeted welt strips l2 and I4 are processed as described in my prior Patent No.

2,142,228 to produce beaded welts. The strip I2 is slit upward beneath the rabbet along a line that defines the width of the beaded welt to be produced, and then outward (Fig. 2) to form the bead flap 2!] and a shelf 23 on which the folded material seats, and, after cementing the under face of the flap, the bead I8 is formed-up and the sewing-edge molded as shown in Fig. 3. Likewise the strip 14 is slit upward from about the corner 24 (Fig. 1) and then outward to form a bead fiap 2 5 and a shelf 28 (Fig. i) on which the folded material sea-ts. Prior to cementing the under face of the flap 26 it is preferable to cut a short slit 29 at the base of the bead core 22 to facilitate the reverse bending of the tail of the fiap in building up a sewing edge. The com pleted bead 39 of the welt strip l4, inclining toward the elt extension, is shown by Fig. 5. This bead, as illustrated, is completely grain surfaced.

Some tail string trimming may be necessary but generally the bead flaps fold to the exact width required.

Attention is here called to the shape of each rabbet. Each is bounded at each side thereof by a beveled face formed by the inclination of the end-bar cuts to the surfaces of the fillet being severed. Only the inner portion of each flange is utilized to form-up a bead the unutilized, beveled end portion of the flange being used to build up a beveled sewing edge on the welt which promotes flexibility at this portion of the welt and promotes sewing a tighter inseam.

It will be observed that by severing the fillet as herein described the lapping material of the cut provides the extra width necessary for the production of two beaded welts each wider than any beaded welt that could be produced from a strip one-half the width of the fillet, and because of the novel shape of the severing cut a material saving of stock is made over all previously lmown methods.

The nature and scope of the invention having been indicated and the preferred process of manufacture having been specifically described, what is claimed as new, is:

1. The method of producing two welt strips from a double fillet of less width than the combined width of stock in single fillets required for the two beaded welts made from said strips, each stripbeing of greater overall width than onehalf of the width of said fillet and each having a rabbet along one edge adapted for cutting a flange for forming-up into a longitudinal bead within the edges of a severed strip, comprising severing the fillet longitudinally by a three-part cut formed by a buried center bar lying in a plane oblique to both faces of the fillet, a bar at one end thereof emerging at one face of the fillet and extending in a direction inclined to said face and inclined away from said end of the center bar, and a bar at the other end thereof emerging at the opposite face of the fillet and extending in a direction inclined to said face and inclined away from said end of the center bar, the emergence of one of said end bars being along a line that defines the overall width of the beaded Welt to be produced from the welt strip thus severed from the fillet.

2. The method according to claim 1 in which said fillet consists of grain surfaced leather and wherein the bar of said three-part out, which by its emergence determines the width of one beaded welt, emerges at the flesh face of said fillet.

3. Themethod according to claim 1 in which one of said end bars of the three-part cut is curved in such a direction that its emergence from the face of the fillet is in a plane substantially that of the fillet face thus producing a surface that will flow smoothly into the rounded ridge of the bead to be formed-up.

4. The method of producing two welt strips from a double fillet of grain surfaced leather and of less width than the combined width of stock in single fillets required for the two beaded welts made from said strips, each strip being of greater overall width than one-half of the width of said fillet, one of said strips having a grain side rabbet and the other a flesh side rabbet along one edge adapted for cutting a flange for forming-up into a longitudinal bead within the edges of v a severed strip, comprising severing the fillet longitudinally a bar extending away from one end of said center bar to the flesh face of said fillet and inclined thereto and emerging from said flesh face along a line that defines the overall width of the beaded welt to be produced from the welt strip obtained from that side of the fillet, and a bar extending away from the other end of the center bar to the grain face of the fillet, said bar being curved in a direction to cause its emergence from said grain face in a plane substantially that of the fillet face.

5. The method of producing two welt strips from a double fillet of less width than the combined width of stock in single fillets required for the two beaded welts made from said strips, each strip being of greater overall width than one-half of the width of said fillet, comprising severing the fillet longitudinally by a three-part cut formed by a buried center bar lying in a plane oblique to both faces of the fillet, and two end bars joining the ends of said center bar, said end bars extending in oppositely inclined directions away from said center bar such that said end bar cuts extend in directions inclined to the faces of the fillet and each emerges at an opposite face thereof, each severed welt strip thereby having a rabbeted edge adapted for cutting a flange for forming-up into a longitudinal bead within the edges of a severed welt strip.

6. The method of manufacturing a pair of beaded welts from a double fillet which comprises severing the fillet longitudinally by a three-part out having a buried center bar extending in a direction across the fillet and a bar at each end thereof, said end bar cuts emerging at opposite faces of the fillet, and said end bars being so related angularly to the center bar that upon severance of the fillet into two welt strips each strip has a rabbet at one edge that is bounded at each side by a beveled face, thereupon cutting inward on each strip below its rabbet forming integral flanges adapted for folding into a bead at the flanged side of a strip, and then, after cementing the inner faces of said flanges, folding a portion of each flange to form-up a bead on each strip, and building up a beveled sewing edge for each beaded welt with the unutilized, beveled end portion of the flange.

7. The method according to claim 6 in which the side-bevel at the. inner boundary of the rabbet on one of said severed welt strips is concavely curved at least along its edge which adjoins the face of the welt strip.

8. The method according to claim 6 in which said fillet consists of grain surfaced leather, said two severed welt strips having, respectively, a grain side rabbet and a flesh side rabbet, and said side-bevel at the inner boundary of the grain side rabbet is concavely curved at least along its edge which adjoins the grain surface of the welt strip.

WILLIAM C. VIZARD. 

